Lord Shenxiu
Chapter 409: Peach Blossom Luck (Happy New Year!)

Chapter 409: Chapter 409: Peach Blossom Luck (Happy New Year!)

Wu Country lay at the center of the Southern Wilderness, the most powerful among the hundred countries, hosting the Taixu Mountain Range that stretched for five thousand miles. Veiled in mist and rosy clouds, there stood an extraordinary peak invisible to common folk, known as "Taixu Peak"!

Atop Taixu Peak was situated a sect called "Taixu Sect," which ranked among the leading factions in the Southern Wilderness.

It was said that Taixu Sect was once a part of the Da Jing Sect but had to withdraw in obscurity from Da Jing due to exclusion, seeking refuge in the Southern Wilderness.

The sect boasted exquisite Daoist Skills, housing the Six Taixu Techniques, each more formidable than Xuanhai Sect’s foundational scriptures.

Zhong Shenxiu had not known these facts earlier.

But he had come to learn about them after overhearing sect members speaking with Miao Yin Immortal.

At that moment, he had transformed into a streak of escaping light outside Taixu Peak.

"This Taixu Sect indeed has a profound heritage; its Daoist Skills are authentically different from those flashy but shallow arts, likely bearing the essence of ancient techniques."

"I have long abandoned the life of murder and treasure hunting, and being a revered Ancestor Shenxiu, should I continue this aggression, what would become of my reputation?"

"I must... adopt a new face, striking stealthily is the way."

Zhong Shenxiu, rarely visiting these parts, was unwilling to leave the treasure mountain empty-handed.

He had already considered the sect’s sacred texts as his own.

However, most of the Southern Wilderness Hundred Sects, similar to Xuanhai Sect, kept their most guarded secrets limited to the Core Formation Realm, and they were mostly of mediocre quality.

Only Taixu Sect was worth noting.

"After this stint, I’m heading to Da Jing."

Just as he was about to activate the Thousand Transformations Divine Power to mimic the Daoist Skill of swapping heaven and earth, to change his face and mana, a thought struck him, and he looked in a certain direction.

Within the Taixu Mountain Range, several streaks of luminance chased one another, their energies intertwined, indicating cultivators engaged in combat.

...

"Haha, today is surely a lucrative day for me, Lin Ruyu!"

A young man, born with peach blossom eyes and dressed in a white robe, wore a lascivious smile while operating a five-colored Magic Artifact.

This artifact was a cloud barrier that, once deployed, transformed into a colorful miasma, trapping two female practitioners.

The miasma was vibrantly beautiful, especially alluring with its sweet and rich fragrance, almost irresistible to breathe deeply.

In the miasma, a female practitioner dressed in goose-yellow stumbled, inhaling the miasma, and was bewitched into unconsciousness.

Another, dressed in lake-green, gritted her teeth and released a magic artifact resembling a jade hairpin, still desperately resisting as she cursed, "We sisters have truly been blind to fall prey to a thief like you. This place is not far from the gates of my Taixu Sect; once my sect’s elders arrive, you will have nowhere to bury your corpse."

Lin Ruyu chuckled coldly and suddenly extended his hand, revealing two fluttering spirit talismans: "Your communication talismans have already been intercepted by this young master. My little beauty, struggle no more; better to surrender to me, and I assure you of endless ecstasy..."

The lake-green-clad girl’s expression changed drastically, suddenly realizing something and exclaimed, "So you are the Lin Country Peach Blossom Thief?!"

She was filled with remorse.

Both she and her senior sister were disciples of the Taixu Sect, abandoned on the roadside as infants and adopted by their master, who raised them with Spiritual Spring Water, hence their naiveté.

This was their first venture down the mountain when they encountered Lin Ruyu, self-proclaimed "Mr. Daohua."

Her senior sister was charmed by his few words, completely confounded, but she remained cautious and wary, fortunate not to fall for Lin Ruyu’s schemes.

But she could only hold on for a short moment.

After all, the jade hairpin in her hand was only a magic artifact, and her own cultivation was merely at the Condensing Evil stage.

And Lin Ruyu had already become a Refining Gang cultivator!

Although his Gang Qi didn’t seem very strong, the difference in realms was significant, not to mention he possessed the Five Poison Peach Barrier, a formidable magic artifact created from sixteen types of Hundred Flowers Miasma and the five poisons of centipedes, scorpions, toads, spiders, and golden snakes!

If the opponent hadn’t intended to capture her alive, just activating a few of the deadly miasmas might have killed her and her sister apprentice, turning them into pools of pus.

"Take this!"

Suddenly, Lin Ruyu swung his hand, releasing a burst of Gang Qi that smashed the jade hairpin, and a pink mist rushed towards her face.

The girl in the lake-green dress knew it was not good, but her vision darkened, and she fainted.

Lin Ruyu, grinning mischievously, stepped forward, scooped up one in each arm, and laughed heartily, "The White Water Sect drove me out of Lin Kingdom and even sent people to hunt down this young master; little did they know that I devised a trick of the escaping cicada’s shell, ostensibly fleeing to Yue Country but actually arriving early in Wu Country, waiting for the day I achieve Core Formation to settle this score..."

"So you are the Peach Blossom Thief!"

At this moment, a clear and jade-like voice suddenly rang out.

"Who?"

Lin Ruyu turned pale with fright, pinched a spell, and summoned a cloud of five-poison mist to protect his body.

But a sword light descended, piercing through the Five Poison Peach Barrier and straight through Lin Ruyu’s skull, ending his life.

Zhong Shenxiu gracefully descended from mid-air and spat, "What Peach Blossom Thief, he’s indeed not as handsome as me..."

Originally, Qing Xiaozi used the Peach Blossom Thief to slander him; later, when Zhong Shenxiu saw the actual wanted poster, he also recognized Lin Ruyu.

For such a thief, there was nothing much to say; he just flew his sword through the head, claiming the life, "Such deeds of a notorious thief that amuses some and enrages others, I haven’t even done yet, and you dare to be the first?"

He glanced at the two unconscious Female Practitioners, not paying much attention, and made a move over the Peach Blossom Thief Lin Ruyu’s body.

A Five Poison Peach Barrier artifact, along with a silk handkerchief artifact, fell into his hands.

"Um, I was thinking of concealing my identity. Suddenly a strange Core Formation cultivator appears, it’s still a bit conspicuous... Pretending to be him would give me some roots and origin."

Zhong Shenxiu snapped his fingers, a flame burning Lin Ruyu’s body to ashes, then carefully inspected the magic artifacts and spells in his hand.

The Five Poison Peach Barrier was rather ordinary, and he casually put it away, but the silk handkerchief had a boudoir fragrance; it was finely embroidered with a spell named— "The True Scripture of Peach Blossom"!

The opening line was ’Peach blossoms bloom abundantly, good fortune naturally arrives!’, and had some mysterious essence of luck.

Zhong Shenxiu quickly read through it, eventually tucking away the handkerchief and sighing:

"This method... is quite ordinary, at most it leads to Core Formation, but among Loose Cultivators, it’s quite a decent inheritance..."

This Daoist Skill was incomplete. The stages of Foundation Establishment and Qi Refinement were not strong, the key being the Condensing Evil phase which used the Daohua Evil. During the Refining Gang phase, originally unable to find suitable Gang Qi, a Peach Blossom Cultivator took a crooked path, thinking since there was no suitable Gang Qi in the world, why not create one? Thus, a ’Yin Yang Gang’ secret technique was created, requiring the harvesting of Female Practitioner’s essence to succeed. Since then, generation after generation of Peach Blossom inheritors followed this twisted path, becoming infamous thieves.

"Actually, this is straying from the path. Otherwise, it would rely on peach blossoms, following the ancient methods of borrowing luck, turning misfortune into fortune, with the peach blossom luck by their side, unbeknownst how carefree and joyous it would be."

"Hmm, this addition by later generations in the method of Refining Gang is quite clever, just took a wrong turn. In the end, the quality of Core Formation isn’t great, hovering only in the lower third grade, but it still has a rather pleasant name, called ’Yin Yang Peach Fortune Pill’!"

Having obtained the technique, he pondered secretly, with his Thousand Transformations Divine Power, he could easily simulate this lower-tier pill method’s divine power.

"If I choose this identity, news of a Peach Blossom Thief achieving Core Formation will soon spread throughout the Southern Wilderness Hundred Countries..."

PS: Sending New Year’s greetings to all book readers, wishing everyone a double harvest in peach blossoms and career!

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